TEE GENESEE FAKMKK. 



333 



FATTENING POULTEY. 



It is truly astonishing that so few fanners jiay 

 any attention to fattening poultry for market. 

 That it would be profitable there can be no doul)t. 

 In this city we rarely see a well-fed chicken in 

 market. The greater part of them are little else 

 than skin and bones. 



In the larger cities capons and other well-fed 

 chickens are more common. Parties make a special 

 business of feeding them, and doubtless realize a 

 profit in doing so ; but the great bulk of poultry 

 is not more than half fatted. Farmers do not seem 

 to understand that a well-fed chicken, nicely dress- 

 ed, will command nearly double the price of one 

 picked up out of the barn-yard, hastily dressed, 

 and carelessly packed for market. Yet such is the 

 fact. Tlie Commission Houses in New York con- 

 stantly complain of the miserable condition of the 

 poultry consigned to them. 



The London Poultry Chronicle has an article on 

 "O^er-Feeding Poultry," which is not adajited to 

 this country— for it is very seldom that our farmers 

 err in this direction. There are some hints, how- 

 ever, on fattening chickens for market that we 

 commend to the readers of the Genesee Farmer : 



"It must always be borne in mind that fattening 

 means only what it implies. It is (in table phrase) 

 adding fat to lean. It is useless to put up a skele- 

 ton, however healthy, and to fancy that good meat 

 will be put on by feeding in confinement. As we 

 wish to wrife tarailiarly, we will say the lean meat 

 must be made while the bird is running at liberty. 

 linother error against which we must warn our 

 readers is the i<lea that any amount of feeding 

 will make a hard fowl tender. Hardness is the re- 

 sult of age, and the distinction between 'old' and 

 'not very old' is, after a certain age, nonsense so 

 far as eating is concerned. A fowl is an old one 

 at ten months as certainly as at the end of ten 

 years. 



•"Premising, then, the birds put up to fatten 

 shall be young — say sixteen, or eighteen, or even 

 twenty weeks old, and fleshy, three weeks' con- 

 finement ouglit to make them very good. We do 

 not advise crainniiug under ordinary circumstances. 

 It is good where fowls are intended for market, 

 but it is hardly necessary for home consumption. 

 If a coop be made for twelve or eighteen fowls and 

 four are put into it, they will not fetten — there 

 will he too much room. The birds must have 

 room to stand up, and to shift their position, but 

 not to move about. They should be fed three 

 times per day; their food should be ground oats, 

 or oatmeal mixed with milk, of such consistence 

 that when i.iid on a board in front of the coop it 

 will not run otF. The food should be fresh-mixed 

 each time, and 'no more Should be given than will 

 be eaten clean at each meal. If the day's con- 

 sumption is placed at once before the bird it eats 

 to repletion to the destruction of appetite; the 

 food turns sour, and then it takes a distaste and 



does badly. The fattening fowls must he fed every 

 morning at daybreak; tiiey mus-t be covertd up 

 warm at niglit, and protected from cold by day. 

 Tliey sliould fatten in tliree weeks. If they have 

 stale food, if they are fed irregularly, if they aie 

 kept in drauiihts and place? where they are not 

 l)rotected from cold, if tliey are allowed to see 

 other fowls running about, they will not fatten." 



We feel quite confident that it would be found 

 exceedingly profitable to put up fowls three weeks 

 before they are sent fo market, and give tliem all 

 the food they will eat; and in the case of turkeys 

 cramming may be reported to with advantage. 

 We do not say that the increased weight of the 

 poultry will of itself pay for the trouble and tlie 

 food consumed ; but it must be recollected that the 

 whole chicken or turkey is worth three or four 

 cents per pound more when well-fatted than when 

 sold in a half-starved condition, A poor turkey, 

 weighing 10 pounds, will bring say 9 cents per- 

 pound, or 90 cents. The same turkey fed until it 

 weighs 15 pounds will bring say 14 cents per 

 pound, or $2.10. The labor and care of raising 

 the turkey is the same in both cases, but for the 

 want of a few weeks' feeding we get less than half 

 the money for the one than for the other. These 

 figures may not be accurate, but they serve to il- 

 lustrate the advantages of fattening poultry — and 

 in fact the same is true of cattle, sheep, &c. 



There is one thing in fattening poultry that 

 should not he forgotten : when once fat they should 

 be disposed of. It will not pay to keep them after 

 they are quite fat. As a general rule three weeks 

 is long enough to keep the chickens in the fatten- 

 ing coop. As soon as they are quite fat, they 

 should be removed and others put in their place. 



It will'tbe noticed that oat- meal is recommended 

 for fattening fowls. There can be no doubt but 

 that it is excellent, but in this country corn-meal 

 is usually cheaper and nearly if not quite as good. 

 Fowls like variety in their food. A little fresh 

 meat, maslied potatoes, rye-meal, &c., may be 

 given accordingly with advantage. 



At the late fair in Hamburg, the twelve sheep 

 of Mr. Campbell, of Vermont, competed witk 

 1,761 foreign sheep — sixty of which belonged to 

 the Emperor of tlie French — and came out A No. 

 1. Mr. Campbell subsequently sold his twelve 

 Atnerican sheep for $5,000. An American gentle- 

 man who was present says that the agent of the 

 French Emperor was not satisfied with the pens 

 provided for the sheep, and obtained permission t«| 

 erect new ones. The result was, that he beat 

 every one in pe7is, but the Yankee beat him in sheep. 



